Just yesterday the Canadian prog metal group Anciients shared exciting news about headlining 2017’s 420 Music & Arts festival. It wasn’t too long ago that we urged everyone to listen to their new album Voice of the Void. And while we’ve been championing since they only had one “i” in their name, guitarist Chris Dyck has decided to leave the band. The band posted his statement on their page yesterday:

Hey there Anciients people!

After some weeks of serious thought I have decided that I need to move on from the band.

I love Kenny, Boon and Hannay like brothers and wish them all the best in the future! This decision has literally nothing to do with any internal bullshit or issues within the band or anything like that. In fact we all get along great, always have. The real reasons are fairly simple and they are all just your standard “no time for it, no money for it, different life priorities” type vibe. Like i said, i love the guys, the music, our support team including our amazing label Season of Mist! This is a really bittersweet day/post for me. On one hand I lose the band i helped create and define from its inception, on the other hand I gain the freedom to do my own thing( if anyone cares to know I am obsessed with motorcycles and early 90’s death metal haha). This has been a tough call to make, but I think its time to let er go.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people:

Gordon, Enrique, Michael, Dan, Sab, Alison, Cam, Jason, Jesse, Mark, Alan, Kelly A, Kelly M, Liz, Marco, Nanouk, Greg, Algar, Charlie, Andrew and a ton of other amazing people…you know who you are.

Extra special thanks to Eric G and Sean P!

Thanks to friends in: Lamb of God, Decapitated, High on Fire, Black Wizard, Tesseract, Scale the Summit, Asg, Graves at Sea, Sourveign, Kylesa, Sinister, Mayhem, Intronaut, Gorguts, Sacrifice, Yob, Death, Exhumed and a million more bands for taking us on the road, supporting us and/or supporting me and encouraging me personally along the way.

Thanks to all the local BC bands we have played with and all the awesome local promoters, you know i love ya!

Of course a massive thanks goes out to the fans of Anciients all over the place…you guys/gals are THE BEST!

And finally, cheers and love to my dudes Kenny, Boon and Hannay…you guys fucking rule!

I know all you amazing people will be stoked with the new guy(I know because he is a buddy and a fucking killer guitarist)!…Kenny should be announcing that real soon!

Cheers everyone and thanks again…Have a good one!

Chris